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What the Megalodon Left Behind

The largest shark ever to exist on this planet, Carcharocles megalodon, could grow...

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On the Trail of DNA in the Ocean

DNA is everywhere—it can be found in hair, saliva, blood, bones, feces or even...

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Flippers or Feet? An Extinct Mammal May Have Been Replaced By Today's Sea Cows

In the seagrass beds and kelp forests of the Oligocene-Miocene transition, nearly...

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Making a Mark on the Ocean Floor

Until very recently oceanography was a field dominated by men. A seafaring career,...

Personal Perspectives

4,000 Years of Marine History through the Eyes of a Seabird

Most people have never heard of the Hawaiian petrel, an endangered, crow-sized...

Personal Perspectives

Smithsonian Scientists Describe a 'New' Fossil Whale

Monodontids, the group of whales that includes the belugas and narwhals swimming...

Personal Perspectives

Summer in a Sub: DROP Down to Discovery

You never know where following your passions can take you. I came to the...

Personal Perspectives

Expedition to Excavate a Fossil Whale

My graduate student Jorge and I are departing today for Panama, to excavate a...

Teams of Robots Can Help Us Build 3D Maps of the Ocean

One of the trickiest problems in marine science is figuring out how to map the...

When Did Today’s Whales Get So Big?

More recently than you might think, say scientists who scoured the fossil...

Personal Perspectives

Five Questions with Nancy Rabalais, Tracking Dead Zones In the Gulf

The Gulf of Mexico is known for one of the world's largest “dead zones"—areas...

Personal Perspectives

Five Questions with Uta Passow, How An Oil Spill Affects the Movement of Carbon In the Ocean

There are millions of tiny drifting plants in the sunlit ocean, called...